US stocks retreat on lingering angst on interest rates

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) (AFP pic)

NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks retreated in early trading on Tuesday as worries about higher interest rates weighed on sentiment heading into earnings season.

About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.6% to 26,336.38.

The broad-based S&P 500 lost 0.3% at 2,875.70, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index was a hair lower at 7,735.39.

Analysts cited lingering worries over higher interest rates as the yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond held solidly above 3.0%.

Some market watchers are also unsure about third-quarter earnings, with forecasts projecting a smaller jump in year-over-year profits compared with the second quarter. Those forecasts have propelled a sense that the United States is past its peak earnings period.